2016 field could include Limberbutt McCubbins, Deez Nuts
With almost two dozen candidates in the 2016 race for the White House, it's already a very crowded field, but that number could grow, by a lot.
There are close to 800 aspiring presidential candidates who have registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid.
All candidates must file with the FEC before launching their campaigns but this cycle, the number of submissions is at an all time high. Alongside front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, voters will also find longshots like Obi-Wan Kenobi, a cat named Limberbutt McCubbins and a 15-year old from Iowa who goes by Deez Nuts.
In 2014, Harley Brown ran as a fringe candidate for governor of Idaho, but said God had bigger plans for him.
"He says 'No son, I got a higher rank for you, I'm going to make you the commander in chief,'" Brown said.
Last year, Brown registered with the FEC, joining names like Captain Crunch, Rocky Balboa and Mr. Ronald Reagan's Ghost in announcing a campaign for president.
This year, one increasingly popular name belongs to 15-year-old Brady Olson, aka Deez Nuts.
"I just think I'm a better option than Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump or Jeb Bush," Olson said.
He may be two decades shy of the legal age to be commander in chief, but he told CBS Mankato, Minnesota affiliate KEYC he registered with the FEC under the name Deez Nuts to get attention -- and it's working.
"I thought, 15-years-old, it's gonna be a joke, that'd be the end of it, and when I got the message that Huffington Post wanted to interview him I thought, 'Wow! This has gained a little bit more traction than I anticipated,"' his father, Mike, said.
In a robocall poll this summer, thousands of voters in Iowa, North Carolina and Minnesota were asked if they'd support him.
"We had all these people tweeting at us, 'You should poll Deez Nuts as a candidate for president and see how they do,'" liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling director Tom Jensen said.
His organization found support for Deez Nuts was as high as 9 percent when compared to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, two front-runners Jensen's survey found to be polarizing.
"When you have a situation like that, when voters don't like either candidate, they are going to be looking for another option, and at least in this poll, into the void steps Deez Nuts," Jensen said.
The FEC said anyone can register a campaign, and the number of submissions has increased from 139 in 1976 to over 400 in 2012. For the 2016 cycle, the commission made filing even easier, offering online submission. and nearly 800 people have filed so far.
Self-proclaimed redneck for president Robert Macleod Jr. sent in his paperwork in April.
"There's now 400 of us. Maybe they can put us in a big cage match and the two men that walk out are president and vice president," Macleod said.
It's fair to say the rest of the field spans the political spectrum.
An FEC spokesperson confirmed they don't consider anyone to be an official candidate until they've raised or spent more than $5,000.
One former FEC chair told CBS News no one at the federal level is verifying the information written on these forms, or even whether candidates are eligible to run for president -- which enabled someone to file a fake registration under the name Joe Biden over the weekend.